


Marriage By Association

by Xerox



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Bromance, Gen, TWD kinkmeme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-30
Updated: 2012-04-30
Packaged: 2017-11-04 14:21:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/394817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xerox/pseuds/Xerox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for this prompt at TWD Kink Meme:<br/>Rick and Shane are like, the greatest dude-bros ever. Seriously. It kind of creeps people out, how psuedo-married they are.</p><p>5 times Rick and Shane did something ridiculous and were mistaken as a couple, maybe?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marriage By Association

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: No real warnings, there's a bit I'm worried about which might be considered homophobic, maybe misogynistic (like I ever write Shane without hints of misogyny... or full out to be honest -_-). I don't believe it's full out, but if that bothers you just wanted to give a heads up.
> 
> PS: This is so saved to my computer as shanerick have an awesome bromance... and I completely lost count so it's more of a random amount of random scenes of people picking on Rick and Shane's bff bromance.

The first time it really happened was in high school. Both of them were on the football team, Shane bowling down anyone who got in his way and Rick was the second string quarter back. It worked for them somehow and senior year Rick finally made first string. And it was glorious. They owned that field, brought that shit straight to state and they ate all of that up like it was candy.

They were at two-a-days working up to the home coming game at the time and Shane’s home life had become more rocky than normal, and Rick being the awesome friend that he was, was helping Shane keep up the act that he was breezing through this whole senior year like the town golden bad boy that he was.

So Rick hadn’t thought twice about bringing Shane’s laundry that morning, it was just what was left over from all the times Shane crashed at his house really, and he hadn’t even done it. His mom had, what difference would it make?

Except the bag broke because Shane wasn’t paying attention and it hit that bench like it weight a ton instead of ten pounds.

And there was Shane clothes and underwear all over the locker room just as Coach walked in. “Ain’t that swell?” Coach said loudly, standing right in front of the bench with his hands on his hips. “Grimes did Welsh’s laundry, now maybe he can clean up for him like a good little wife.”

Yeah, that was how it began.

-

At the police academy it was more mean spirited than the coach’s jibes and Shane found himself in a few fist fights he probably shouldn’t have gotten into while in the police academy. The thing was that some of the things they were saying, well he wouldn’t stand for it to be said about Rick. It never crossed his mind to distance himself from Rick though.

When they graduated, at the private party that was less formal than the actual graduation, the Sergeant stood up at the end of the bar, holding his glass out like he was about to make a toast. “I’d like to take this time, to congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Grimes Walsh, or Walsh-Grimes however they’ve decided to work it out, on their engagement. May you have many happy years and all that.”

Shane threw a balled up napkin at the man while Rick had blushed a nice full face blush, but it had ended with a good night like everyone had forgotten that Shane wasn’t afraid to break his fist on their face.

-

Actually joining the Sherriff’s department had been a nerve racking, at this point they would jokingly tell each other they were co-dependent but truthfully they had come this far and they didn’t want for it to end here or to be split up. 

Then Rick, the mother hen that he was, kept bringing Shane launch. Leftovers from whatever Lori had made the night before. And Rick never blinked twice at the ribbing that created, so Shane shrugged and took the lunch. If there was one thing about Lori that Shane was jealous about it was that she cooked and it didn’t involve scrapping around the burnt bit, like his own cooking consisted of. Mind he was damned good at barbequing and Rick damn well knew it too.

Unsurprisingly, Shane’s training partner kept asking him what his wife kept bringing him for lunch.

Shane would always just look at James, raise an eyebrow, and ask if he was jealous. It seemed to work for them.

One day, they’d all met up for lunch at some Chinese restaurant, had a nice buffet for cheap and it was a popular lunch spot for the other guys. So there they were sat and Rick and Shane were already ignoring jokes about their marriage, when Jim, some newguy, came up all confused like. “Wait, y’all don’t live together? Hows that work?”

And every one of them shut up for once, no jokes or nothing, and just stared at him a moment, trying to figure out what the hell he was asking. “You and Rick, how does your life spouseship work without living together?”

And Rick was just repeating the words ‘life spouseship’ while the rest of them just burst out laughing, because Jim was stood there all serious like and had actually been thinking he and Rick were married. “Well, Rick here, he likes tax exemptions. Is down right ‘anal’ about ‘em,” Shane started and James cut in, looking like he was about to start mischief.

“Yeah, Lori, Rick’s law wife, she’s just a beard man. She’s actually shacking up with the captain’s wife.”

“Now you take that back,” Rick said, fake frown on and all. “Lori is more to me than just a tax break, but we had Shane staying with us until we found out we can’t claim him as a dependent.”

And Shane took a deep breath, looked Jim straight in the eyes, “Nah man. For real, Rick kicked me out ‘cuz I can’t remember to put the damned toilet seat down.” He sighed all dramatic like, “said I could come back once I figured it out though.”

It took Jim another month to figure out they were ribbing him, gullible mother fucker that he was.

-

Neither of them would ever talk about how it happened, as far as the rest of the world was concerned that gash on Shane’s head? Well it just appeared out of nowhere. But Lori heard a crash, ran down to the basement to saw them both tangled together and Shane bleeding like a stuck pig and ordered them to the ER, and wouldn’t come with them.

Shane thought it was kind of ridiculous how long he sat in the waiting room, with a bloody dish rag held to his head, but when he finally got brought back, well he wasn’t going to face the consequences on his own. That was for sure.

So in there, and a nurse is carefully pulling the rag back and then she steps back and asks them how it happened. And neither of them were talking, just glanced at each other and looked at her like they had no idea.

And she sure did try to needle it out of them, but it was like they’d made a pact of silence, and by god they were sticking to it.

Then the doctor came in, ready to stitch Shane’s face together. And Shane, well he didn’t like to admit it, and Rick already damn well knew about, but Shane had this thing about needles. And the thing about getting stitches on your face? You can’t ‘not’ look at the damn needle, and that perspective the damn thing looked huge.

So he couldn’t be blamed for jerking and grabbing Rick’s wrist, because Christ, this was only supposed to be a damned local to numb the area.

Then when he’d lost most feeling in his face, and kept finding himself pressing on the skin around it like a damned idiot, the doctor asked them. “So, how long have you two been together.” And Shane couldn’t do anything about it because there was this weird pulling feeling and that was string going into his face, and he just couldn’t have a huge scar to remind him of this whole thing for the rest of his life, or he’d die of damned mortification.

And Rick, the damned traitor, cracked. Stepped all over himself to explain that they weren’t together and how this had all happened and why Shane was holding his hand…

Shane didn’t forgive him for two weeks.


End file.
